MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping the road-weary Los Angeles Kings snap a three-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.
Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.
Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.
Takeaways
Kings: Los Angeles bounced back after allowing a combined 14 goals against Ottawa and Toronto in its last two outings.
Canadiens: The Canadiens played with five defensemen for 40 minutes after Mike Matheson exited the game because of an upper-body injury, with Lane Hutson logging 30:05 in ice-time.
Key moment
Laferriere deflected a point shot from Jordan Spencer 1:37 into the second period for his third goal of the season. Alex Turcotte assisted on the goal. Turcotte’s father, Alfie, played 85 games with the Canadiens between 1983 and 1986.
Key stat
Los Angeles beat the Canadiens for the seventh consecutive time, including four straight in Montreal.
Up next
Kings: At Anaheim on Sunday.
Canadiens: At the New York Islanders on Saturday night.
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